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Pan-American Cooperation 
in Pan-American Affairs 



By 

F. ALFOXSO PEZET 



Reprinted from The American Political Science Review, 
Vol. XI, No. 2. May, IQI7 




Reprinted from The American Political Science Review, Vol. XI, No. 2, May, 1917 







PAN-AMERICAN 



COOPERATION 
AFFAIRS 1 



IN PAN-AMERICAN 



P. ALFONSO PEZET 



A complete and thorough study of the question should em- 
brace the following points: 

A. The Pan- American idea : its inception, and its development 
up to the present time. 

B. The need of an international Pan-American understand- 
ing that shall create the desire for Pan-American conciliation. 

C. The promotion of Pan-American conciliation leading to 
the promulgation of an international Pan-American policy of 
cooperation in all affairs of the Americas. 

Under "A" we have to consider: The movement for political 
emancipation in the Americas; the early and subsequent at- 
tempts to establish unions, leagues and federations among the 
republics; the attitude of the political leaders in America toward 
closer relations; the conditions obtaining in the several sec- 
tions of America, and their influence for or against the realization 
of the ideals upon which the commonwealths were established; 
the congresses, conferences, and meetings of every nature, held 
in the Americas to promote Pan-American policies; the evolu- 
tion of the Pan-American idea since Bolivar and Henry Clay, 
through Blaine up to the present day. 

1 An address before the American Political Science Association, at Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, December 28, 1916. 

217 



218 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 

Under "B": The controversies, differences, and questions 
thatshave arisen between the republics; the wars that have been 
waged by them; the growth and development of the different 
nations ; their racial and other differences ; commercial and politi- 
cal interests; rivalries and jealousies due to the process of evolu- 
tion and the shaping of spheres of influence; alterations in the 
map of the Americas and present status of boundary disputes; 
interference and intervention in the domestic affairs of back- 
ward states; dangers of the latter through continued misgov- 
ernment; need of getting closer together in view of new world 
conditions. 

Under "C" we have the following to consider: The convocation 
to an international Pan-American congress to discuss openly a 
common sense plan of international conciliation; such a plan to 
put an end to all present day controversies of whatever nature; 
and the congress to establish a guarantee for future peace by 
binding itself to safeguard the integrity of the American repub- 
lics against any aggression either from outside America or from 
any American nation, and finally, to promulgate the policy of 
cooperation in all matters affecting the Pan-American union of 
sovereign republics. 

As it is not possible to present a study of this nature in the 
short time allowed to each speaker, I beg leave to make, on this 
occasion, an abbreviated exposition of the question under dis- 
cussion, and perhaps, at some other time, the more comprehen- 
sive view of the subject, as outlined, may be presented. 

The Pan-American idea owes its inception to Bolivar, the man 
of foresight and of genius, whose triumphant sword~had liber- 
ated the larger portion of the South American continent from the 
dominion of Spain. 

It was he who first had the idea of establishing in America 
something akin to a union among the newly organized republics, 
when he invited, in December of 1824, the governments of the 
Colombian Confederation, Mexico, Central America, the United 
Provinces of the River Platte, Chile and Peru to meet in con- 
gress at Panama, to discuss among other subjects, a "treaty of 
union, a league and confederation of American states that should 
last for all time." 



PAN AMERICAN COOPERATION 219 

The government of the United States of North America was 
also invited to attend the congress. This was perhaps due to the 
personality of Henry Clay, at that time secretary of state, and 
in recognition of his services to the cause of South American in- 
dependence. 

Bolivar's intention, however, was first to constitute a union or 
league among the Latin or Spanish nations, and after this had 
been properly organized to invite the great republic of the north, 
as it was then called, even at that time, to become a party to 
the principles as set forth in the treaty of confederation. 

It needed all of Clay's ability to convince the congress of the 
United States of the necessity of appointing representatives to 
attend the congress of the Latin states, and only after much 
procrastination and some unnecessary remarks with reference 
to the South American states, the North American envoys were 
appointed. 

The meeting was not a decided success, because of the fact that 
the South and Central American nations were not as yet prop- 
erly organized, and because differences of a personal character 
arose among the plenipotentiaries to the congress, but that this 
should have been the result does not detract from its interna- 
tional importance. And, in view of the fact that, since then, 
with variations more or less, the same ideals have been pro- 
claimed by the nations of America whenever they have wished to 
make a concerted movement toward closer political relations, 
it would seem proved that the basic principle underlying the idea 
had much to commend it to the attention of statesmen and 
politicians, and that undoubtedly it contained the germ of the 
Pan-American policies that since then have developed through- 
out the continent. 

This first congress of the Americas remains as a landmark of 
history, as the point of departure of the Pan-American move- 
ment, while the principles it recommended for the union, peace, 
and welfare of the nations and the high ideals that it proclaimed 
are in themselves the most lasting monument to the genius of 
Bolivar. 



220 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 

The predominant idea prevailing among the leaders of thought 
and of action in the different colonies during their struggle for 
political emancipation, was a desire to establish a close bond of 
union between the sections in revolt against the tyranny of the 
colonial government so as to give a concerted action to the general 
movement. 

This in a great measure was made possible in the North Ameri- 
can colonies which revolted against England in the last third of 
the eighteenth century, because of the advanced conditions in 
many of these, and on account of their geographic position, the 
topography of their territory, its not too large extension, the 
existence of natural and not too difficult means of communica- 
tion between the centers of population, and the state of material 
growth and development that such centers had already attained, 
which had a beneficial influence over large surrounding terri- 
tories. Therefore, the early federation of the thirteen original 
states was undertaken without any very considerable difficulty, 
and a solid foundation laid for the building up of a great and 
strong nation. 

In Spanish America conditions were very different. In con- 
trast with the English colonies, the colonies of Spain in America 
occupied a very vast and extensive area; they were very thinly 
populated; their inhabitants belonged to mixed races and to 
races having strong dislikes for each other, the aboriginal In- 
dian and the proud Castilian, with the white race in a decided 
minority. The individual states were separated from each 
other by natural barriers that made intercourse between them 
for practical purposes next to impossible. The centers of 
population and of power were very far apart. Centralized power, 
to a degree unknown in the Anglo-Saxon colonies, created in- 
tense local interests, and encouraged isolation. Add to this the 
geographic position of Spanish America, the extreme differences 
of climatic conditions between sections of the same state, the 
extraordinary topography of the greater part of the countries, 
the general backwardness of the masses and their poverty, the 
arrogance of the classes, the system of government, and lastly 
the leisurely aristocracy living side by side with a most abject 



PAN AMERICAN COOPERATION 221 

proletariat, without the saving clause of any middle class to 
temper the one and uplift the other. 

If conditions in South America had been different in those 
early days of our history, if they had been anything like unto 
what they were in this country in 1776, there might have been a 
probability of establishing then and there a federation of repub- 
lics that might have survived the vicissitudes of the revolutionary 
period and possibly endured until this day. 

At different periods in the history of Latin America, the fed- 
eration idea of Bolivar has been revived, and several of such 
federations actually have been in existence, or been in the course 
of creation, when unforseeen events have made them evanesce 
or suddenly collapse. The more notable instances of such fed- 
erations have been: — the great Colombian Confederation of 
Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, only of short duration; the 
Peru-Bolivian Confederation, of still shorter life and of disas- 
trous ending; the federated States of the River Plat$e, that dragged 
out a life of vicissitudes; and the Central American Federation, 
disrupted in wars, and a dream yet to be fulfilled. Besides 
these, there have been innumerable attempts at unions, leagues, 
and alliances involving all and every republic of the continent. 
In most of the cases these have given pretexts for wars, some- 
times during the process of their formation, at other times after 
they had been made public, while at still other times wars have 
been waged to disrupt the federation, break up the alliance, or 
because there appeared to be an attempt to do any one of these 
things by some other outside power. 

According as these federations became dissolved, the nations 
that had been a party thereto drifted completely apart, and soon 
became absorbed in other interests. 

The special interests in each locality, the national egotism of 
the centralized govermnents, the antagonism of castes in de- 
mocracies that were only so in name, and the eager desire for 
power among individuals with very little preparation for its 
exercise and responsibilities contributed in a marked manner 
to destroy the ideals upon which the nationalities had been 
founded, and to replace these with a loose moral code, and thus 



222 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 

eventually to drift into military despotisms, hot-beds for revo- 
lution, and centers of political unrest. 

In the midst of these continual upheavals, of this life of tur- 
moil and of constant excitement, national aspirations began to 
take form and to become noticeable. In many instances these 
aspirations grew out of an unwholesome desire to take undue 
advantage of some unfortunate existing circumstance in a 
neighboring state, with the result that interference with the 
domestic and internal affairs of a weaker or less stable republic 
was introduced into the international life of the more aggres- 
sive or more highly developed nations. This attitude at times 
gave rise to very serious questions which sometimes became in- 
ternational in character and took on ugly aspects. Encroach- 
ments on boundaries; moral and material assistance!*) political 
conspirators or refugees, in the hope of bringing on civil war 
which if successful would bring some decided advantage or some 
benefit at the expense of another nation, besides the weakening 
of a rival — were of periodical occurrence. Again there were 
claims against the governments of other nations for real, and 
more often, for imaginary damages; demands for reparation for 
insults that more often were faults of ignorance committed by 
some irresponsible petty authority, and which might have been 
adjusted amicably, if there had existed a corresponding equiva- 
lence of strength between the parties to the quarrel. In this 
manner and by these methods, have been planted the seeds of 
jealousy, distrust, and envy, among nations that were born 
into political existence out of a common effort. 

A third of a century after the wa<rs for independence, the young 
nations had completely drifted apart, leaving behind the lofty 
ideals that gave birth to their aspirations of cooperation and 
solidarity. And as the years rolled on and the work of evolu- 
tion and development progressed, some outdistanced the others 
in the race for material and economic prosperity, and, in some 
instances they became, perhaps, too arrogant, and more aggres- 
sive in their dealings with their less favored sister-nations. 

At times, the republics, or some of them, would get together 
with the object of establishing the basis for an understanding 



PAN AMERICAN COOPERATION 223 

that should bring them back to the path of solidarity. There 
would be diplomatic meetings, conferences, and even congresses ; 
and protocols and treaties would be drafted, discussed, and fin- 
ally signed by properly accredited plenipotentiaries; and after 
the usual interchange of speeches, and the exchange of official 
courtesies, the documents would be submitted to the respective 
legislatures for ratification. Sometimes it would happen that 
the documents over whose preparation so much care had been 
taken were pigeon-holed in the department of foreign affairs, 
and on other occasions, in committee-rooms of the senate, never 
again to see the light of day. The diplomatic history of the 
American republics is replete with occurrences of this kind. 
And still in every instance, where a diplomatic document has 
had to be drawn up, it is safe to say that at least one of the parties 
to it acted in bona fides, while in most of the cases the intent to 
live up to the terms of the agreement, convention, or treaty was 
absolutely genuine on the part of the high contracting parties. 
Sometimes it happened that these compacts were the outcome 
of political events growing out of situations brought about by 
purely domestic affairs, just passing issues without consequence, 
of a nature that any change in the political regime of either of 
the contracting parties might be sufficient to make the whole 
thing fall through, or to invalidate the instrument. Not infre- 
quently when this has occurred, it brought about an estrange- 
ment between nations which only a short time previously 
had negotiated a treaty or some kind of an agreement, which was 
supposed to put an end to all their differences and create be- 
tween them a bond of everlasting amity. 

This state of perpetual rivalry, and the manifest desire on the 
part of some republics to exercise control or influence over some 
of their weaker sister-republics have given rise throughout Amer- 
ica to a condition of distrust, as between nation and nation. 
It is due to the sentiment of suspicion, thus engendered, that the 
relations between many of the countries of America are not what 
they should be. 

Geographically, the nations of America may be divided into 
three groups: northern, central, southern. The condition to 



224 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 

which I have just referred, has existed and still exists in each 
one of these. To the northern group belong: the United States, 
Mexico, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. To the 
central belong: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, 
Costa Rica, and Panama. To the southern: Colombia, Vene- 
zuela, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, 
Peru, and Ecuador. 

In each one of these there are one or more nations that through 
their material power, economic development, or advantageous 
geographic position have attained a certain amount of political 
prestige, which makes them the dominating factors in their 
respective group. 

The special condition in which certain nations of America 
stand today with respect to their own and to the other groups is 
the outcome of aggressive policies, or else the result of force of 
circumstances, or of both; because in the process of rapid 
growth and development, as new interests appeared, they 
opened the way for new policies which, being applied, did not 
always harmonize with the interests of other nations. 

But, no matter how attained, the result remains that the as- 
cendency of some of the nations of America over the others has 
engendered in many of them a sentiment of bitterness and cre- 
ated a certain amount of distrust of such nations as have given 
signs of too much aggressiveness towards their neighbors in the 
framing of their policies and in the development of their power. 

It was in the desire to blot out all these jealousies, and with a 
view of letting by-gones be by-gones, that James G. Blaine at- 
tempted to bring into life a new sentiment which would unite 
the Americas in a common effort and sow the seed that should 
bring forth a bloom of harmony. Blaine's Pan-American gather- 
ing was a noble idea. It was born of an honest desire to estab- 
lish a strong bond among all the American nations. He sought 
through closer commercial relations to obtain greater mutual 
intercourse, and to produce a better international understand- 
ing. He looked for one common ground upon which to build up 
a new America. As a citizen of the United States, and being 
imbued with the idea of his country's greatness, he naturally 



PAN AMERICAN COOPERATION 225 

looked upon the United States as the one power that should 
make the first move toward the establishment of closer relations, 
and it was quite reasonable to expect that the action of the 
United States should take the nature of recommending a com- 
mercial rapprochement as a stepping stone to a political entente in 
the future. 

There is no doubt that the intention was for the best; and 
also that the Pan-American conference held at Washington in 
1890, was a great international achievement. But it is likewise 
true that while the conference did give birth to a new senti- 
ment among the American nations, it emphasized in many of 
the debates the divisions that existed in the American family 
and it showed to what an extent were still lurking sentiments of 
resentment, of distrust, of jealousy, among the nations. 

Today we are more than a quarter of a century removed 
from Blaine's Pan-American conference, and similar conferences 
have been held at Mexico in 1901-02; at Rio de Janeiro, in 1906; 
at Buenos Aires, in 1910; while the fifth of the series that was 
scheduled to be held at Santiago, Chile, in September of 1915, 
has been postponed indefinitely by reason of the world war, now 
raging. At each and every one of these Pan-American gather- 
ings the web that will eventually knit together the American 
nations has been more closely woven. And although we are 
apparently very far from where the idealists would wish to see 
us, still the getting-together movement is well on, and, fortu- 
nately so, as most certainly we are nearing a point where a 
common necessity may make us realize the need of establishing 
in shorter time than we may have anticipated the desideratum: 
effective Pan-American cooperation. 

To effect this, and to bring about a condition that should 
be permanent, we of the Americas must be untiring in our 
efforts — our honest efforts — toward a Pan-American interna- 
tional understanding. Such an understanding to be of any real 
value, and to serve its purpose, must be of a nature that shall 
hold good alike for all nations. There must not be any dis- 
crimination whatever. It must be honest and true from nation 
to nation; free from restrictions, reservations, loop-holes, or 



226 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 

exceptions of any kind. It must embrace all nations; the 
strong and the weak, the advanced and the backward, the rich 
and the poor, and every one of our nations must be willing to 
enter freely into the spirit of the thing, without which there 
can not be an honest understanding. 

To bring this about we must first realize that there are signs 
already indicating clearly that it can not be very much longer 
before questions of greater importance than any of our present 
day controversies will be confronting the American world as a 
whole — questions of such magnitude in their scope as to dwarf 
into insignificance all others, questions that of necessity will 
demand concerted action, if they are to be dealt with in a manner 
to safeguard the interests of all our peoples. Therefore, as a 
first step toward this Pan-American international understanding, 
we must establish the principle of_Pan-American conciliation, 
which implies the eradication of all outstanding differences that 
may now exist between any of the American nations; the removal 
of all causes for future friction among them, by settlement of all 
present-day controversies; and the renouncing of all such policies 
and actions as are in any way harmful to third interests, and 
detrimental to a final settlement. 

The Honorable Elihu Root, in his now historic official visit to 
South America, under President Roosevelt's administration, 
laid the cornerstone of the edifice of Pan-American conciliation 
when he outlined in his declaration before the sister-republics of 
America, the principle of the policy upon which it should rest. 
And it has been the desire of President Wilson to carry this 
policy of conciliation a step nearer to its goal, when he pre- 
sented to the consideration of the governments of Latin America 
a project for the establishment of permanent peace among our 
nations, based upon a thorough understanding and embracing a 
plan for the prompt settlement of all outstanding controversies. 

But notwithstanding these facts, and although, both here and 
in Latin America, men have come forward at times as strong ad- 
vocates of closer relations and as the champions of the more 
advanced form of Pan-American solidarity — sentiments and 
ideas voiced at all Pan-American gatherings, and inscribed in the 



PAN AMERICAN COOPERATION 227 

writings of men who have taken it upon themselves to create a 
better understanding between our respective peoples — conditions 
throughout the continent have shown us that we have not yet 
reached that stage in international relations where we can justly 
and truthfully declare that our American world is free from the 
controversies and differences that embitter nation against na- 
tion, and which carry within them the seed of distrust and the 
germ of war. 

To read into the future we must look at the present, while 
remembering the lessons taught by the past. 

On all sides and from every nation in America comes today the 
cry on behalf of Pan-American solidarity. And while all in the 
abstract desire its realization, still the individual nation with- 
holds from the general plan of conciliation one or more specific 
questions that it considers of vital interest to its own welfare, 
security, or political prestige, or influence. Such an attitude is 
directly in opposition to the very essence of conciliation. For 
from the moment that a nation withholds one of the contro- 
versies to which it is a party from a general and universal plan 
having for its object international amity, it is leaving a weed 
in the field which will eventually harm, if not destroy, the other 
good seed planted. 

If the nations of America can not reach an understanding 
it is because some of them do not care to give up or to surrender 
positions which they have acquired in the past; which they 
have nursed themselves to believe are essential to their future 
welfare, security, or political influence; and which in certain 
determined sections they consider as belonging to them by 
right. It really serves no purpose to discourse on abstract 
questions, it is useless to talk sentiment, and it is absolute 
hypocrisy to advocate at public gatherings and in the press, 
policies which are not intended for practical purposes, and which 
at best are looked upon as fit and good only for others. 

The nations of America in the course of their development, 
and in the working out of their destinies, have sometimes had to 
resort to force and engage in wars. These wars have left scars 
and in some cases unhealed wounds, that still cause pain to the 
defeated nation. 



^ 



228 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 

A few of these wars have been waged for territorial aggrandize- 
ment, no matter what the alleged pretext may have been at the 
time of entering upon them. 

Notwithstanding the fact that there are two sides to every 
question, there is no doubt that the verdict of the world is 
more often apt to be correct than otherwise. So today, we 
pretty well know who started the fight, which side is in the right 
and which in the wrong, and we have very definite opinions on 
the why and wherefor of such wars. Therefore the side that 
does not wish to submit to an impartial tribunal its outstand- 
ing differences, when its treaty stipulations call for this; the 
side that does not abide by the award of an umpire; the side that 
refuses to allow certain points in a controversy to be affected by 
the treaty under which the precise controversy was considered; 
the side that invokes the nugatory clause that withholds from 
arbitration any question which it may consider as affecting the 
national honor; all belong to the category that are not in earnest 
about conciliation, cooperation, solidarity, international amity, 
and true Pan-Americanism. 

But although there are still a few lukewarm Pan-Americanists, 
the trend is toward the establishment of a permanent policy of 
cooperation in Pan-American affairs. And it is certainly to be 
hoped that we may get there soon. To reach this goal, there 
would seem to be two methods. The one, to let by-gones be 
by-gones. To bow down to the fait accompli, and accept with 
as good grace as is possible, conditions as they are today. This 
implies a generous forgetfulness of the wrongs done, even unto 
the loss of territory; and then, to build up an understanding for 
the future free from all and every sentiment of regret for the 
past. The other, by the thrashing out of all outstanding — pres- 
ent-day — controversies, whatever their nature, and bring about 
their immediate settlement, in a spirit of thorough justice born 
of a true desire for conciliation. 

In the first case it is the weaker nation that is called upon to 
give in; to make all the concessions; to forget the past in bene- 
fit of the present, and in expectation of the future; to accept 
the verdict of might as the last word; and finally to make the 
best possible terms to clear itself from an unfortunate situation. 



PAN AMERICAN COOPERATION 229 

In the second, there is involved a principle of justice, based on 
a clear understanding of absolute equality; the right to discuss 
and to defend. It is not one bowing down in humble submis- 
sion and accepting with the conviction of a fatalist the inevi- 
table from which there can be no alternative, no final appeal. 

History informs us of many instances where a nation having 
followed the first course, after a time became the friend and ally 
of its despoiler. Such occurrences only a short time before 
would have seemed impossible and been considered in the nature 
of aberrations and political monstrosities. This goes to prove 
that nations have varying interests; that these interests should 
be made subordinate to existing conditions, and be governed 
by the ever changing course of events. 

The world war that is now raging throughout Europe has 
brought home to us many a lesson, and we in America have a 
great deal to learn from following the course of events over 
there. It is to these events and their immediate consequence, 
and to the effect that this war may have upon all established 
things, that we should now turn our minds in order to convince 
ourselves that if we, in the Americas, are to be spared from the 
same dangers and pitfalls into which have been lead the highly 
cultured, civilized, and sober nations of Europe, we should hon- 
estly and courageously enter into the spirit of the second method 
and at once decide upon a true policy of international American 
conciliation, which will have for its sole object Pan-American 
cooperation in all matters, and for all time. 

To sum up the foregoing, we have seen that the republics of 
America in the early days of their political existence gave much 
thought and reflection to a desire of getting closer together, even 
to the idea of establishing federations and unions; that later 
they drifted apart, losing in the process some of their ideals ; and 
that as the development of each state became more intense with 
the working out of its own problems, the ties of amity became 
loose, and in the shaping of policies born of individual interests, 
certain nations encroached on others, sometimes wilfully, at other 
times by the force of circumstances, and obtained advantages at 
the expense of their neighbors until today there remain many 
international wounds still unhealed. Bitterness, and resentment 



230 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 

even now are rife, jealousies have not disappeared, and causes 
of friction are of every day occurrence. 

Other events are already crowding upon our nations that 
should make them realize that the time has now come when it 
behooves all to "Stop; look; and listen;" to heed the writing on 
the wall, and to return with sober minds and contrition in our 
hearts to the ideals of the founders of our sovereignties, and seek, 
in a policy of cooperation, based on international conciliation, 
the evolution of the destinies of a United American world. 

Therefore, in conclusion, I submit the following: 

That Pan-American cooperation in Pan-American affairs is a 
policy that makes for international American solidarity, based 
on conciliation as the outcome of an honest endeavour to create 
a thorough understanding between the American nations. 

That in order to establish such a policy and inscribe it as the 
law governing the relations between the nations of the Americas, 
it becomes necessary for all the nations of America forthwith to 
settle all and every one of their international disputes and dif- 
ferences — without any exceptions whatsoever — and no matter of 
what nature, according to existing treaties, either directly, 
through arbitration, or in equity, and immediately following this, 
solemnly to declare and bind themselves never to wage a war of 
aggression against an American nation, or to resort to any ter- 
ritorial acquisition through force of arms, or in any way, man- 
ner, or form to impair the sovereignty of any one of the indepen- 
dent republics of America as constituted at this time. 

And that the appeal contained in this statement should be 
the subject of an intense propaganda throughout all American 
nations, with a view that at the next Pan-American International 
Congress, may be proclaimed the new American international 
policy of cooperation in Pan-American affairs, as the deliberate 
act of a conscious and conscientious America, animated by the 
desire of establishing a life-long bond of amity among the inde- 
pendent sovereign democracies, that together constitute The 
Pan-American Union of Republics. 



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